RE: Testing the user community

From: Morris Sgt Derek P (derek.p.morris@usmc.mil)
Date: Tue Jan 30 2007 - 17:57:30 EST


Kurt,

If you really want to test the vulnerability of your users, more power
to you. That is something I am also looking at doing, but be careful
before you start. Make sure that the scope of your assessment is
CLEARLY defined and that your management/superiors are aware and on
board. All that is for covering your 6. As far as methodology goes,
look for information on "Social Engineering" or "pretexting". If you
have some time before you need to execute your plan, I recommend reading
a couple of books by Kevin Mitnick. I am currently reading "The Art of
Deception" which is all about social engineering. It's a fun read,
makes me laugh, but as a security professional, its also scares me to
death. After that you could try reading "The Art of Intrusion" also by
Mitnick. The latter title I have not picked up yet, but I am planning
to when I finish "Deception." Mitnick's books are a good resource,
after all, how many years did he spend in jail for the subject matter?

Good luck, Kurt, I would be interested to hear how you go about it and
what the results are.

Derek Morris

-----Original Message-----
From: listbounce@securityfocus.com [mailto:listbounce@securityfocus.com]
On Behalf Of webmaster@absolutenetworks.biz
Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 6:12
To: pen-test@securityfocus.com
Subject: Testing the user community

We all know our weak link but how do you identify just how weak they
are? I think it's time to pen test my user community and have a couple
ideas to gather statistics on just how nonaware they really are. Maybe a
simple phishing scam and bogus email with a fake virus attachment that
emails me when it's opened so I can track how many folks actually opened
it. Has anyone ever done this before? I can't find any information
about it on the web.. thoughts and ideas anybody?

Many thanks

Kurt

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